6/05/2003 @ 6:30PM

Living Large In Austin

Picture a place where thousands of young people run along the riverbank to tone their bodies, the days are filled with sunshine, and the supply of high-paying jobs is as endless as Texas itself.

That place is Austin, Texas, which narrowly defeated Denver and Boston to top our Best Places For Singles list for 2003.

The Lone Star State’s capital is a perfect storm of single living. Let’s start with the University of Texas–the foundation of Austin’s success. UT has attracted some of the country’s brightest bulbs for decades, lifting the host city’s singles population, culture, nightlife, cool quotient–and of course its job-growth rate.

Michael Dell is a shining example. The Houston native came to Austin for college in the early 80s and started selling computers from his dorm room. Less than 20 years later,
Dell Computer
, located in nearby Round Rock, is the 50th largest company in the U.S. and employs about 37,000.

Austin’s job growth is expected to rise by more than 15% during the next five years, more than any metropolitan area on our list except for Las Vegas. And unlike Vegas, where many of those jobs will require serving drinks, Austin’s top employers includes high-tech, high-salary firms such as
Motorola
,
Advanced Micro Devices
and
IBM
. The university and sizable state government, meanwhile, keep tens of thousands employed even during market downswings.

Austin made it to No. 1 despite ranking a mediocre 34th in our culture category. The city still lacks a major civic art museum, and while UT perennially produces great football and basketball teams, Austin does not have a professional sports franchise. But art follows money, so it shouldn’t be too long before Austin moves up in this category.

In the meantime, Austin can console itself with the fact that it has the best bat-watching. Austinites hankering for off-beat entertainment head to the Congress Avenue Bridge in the summertime to watch more than a million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from under the bridge for their nightly supper. The bats come to Austin to find mates and warmth–and to devour migrating corn earworm moths at dusk. The show is strange and exciting, just like Austin.

The bats aren’t the only things that flock to Austin to find love, prosperity and an agreeable climate. More than 33% of the city’s population above the age of 15 have never been married–a higher percentage than any other major city. Guys, before you pack up and move, keep in mind that, according to the 2000 census, almost 57% of those singles are men, perhaps due to Austin’s prominence in the male-dominated tech industry.

The city’s diverse nightlife, meanwhile, is one of the best in the country, finishing 13th on our list. Alternative-music fans may bemoan the fact that Sixth Street now caters to Jell-O-shooting college kids, but there’s still plenty of great acts playing downtown and on the city’s outskirts. Though Austin is laid back, you can find fancier fare, including some outstanding upscale steakhouses, cafes and hotel bars. The culinary scene’s star is Chef David Bull, who cooks at the upscale Driskill Grill, and has popped up on the national radar screen as one of America’s most promising young chefs.

Austinites have more disposable cash to afford Bull’s meals than singletons in other metro areas. Austin ranked a strong 13th in the cost of living single. Although rent is high (ranked 30th in terms of affordability), few cities have cheaper places to buy a pizza or a six-pack of beer.

Not only are Austinites beautiful–as evidenced by the thousands who jog along Town Lake each day–they’re also friendly. We’ll leave the last word to Lyle Lovett: “But a dance hall down in Texas, that’s the finest place to be. The women, they all look beautiful, and their men will buy your beer for free.”